Björnskfestivalen 19

Björnskfestivalen 19 will be the nineteenth edition of Björnskfestivalen, the music contest used to select the Björnsk entry for Maia Song Contest 26. It is the fourth edition since the show's revival, and was confirmed to be returning on 3 April 2019. As in the previous three series, it will be jointly hosted by BTV and Øén.

Format
On 3 April 2019, it was announced that the show would continue the successful format that has brought the country three simultaneous runner-ups.

Entry selection
An open call for submissions was opened on 3 April 2019, and BTV also revealed the entry selection, as in the last edition, would be done through the following criteria;


 * Three songs selected by BTV — 30%
 * Three songs selected by Øén — 30%
 * Two second-chance entries — 20%
 * Two international wildcards — 20%

Presenters
On 3 April, it was revealed that Davina McCall would return to host the show once again.

Entries
As in previous editions, BTV-Øén will hinted at participants through Twitter, on 6 April 2019. The full line-up was revealed two days later, on 8 April 2019.

Final
Björnsk representative at Maia Song Contest 26

Accusations of sexism
Upon the reveal of the running order on 8 April 2019, the show was met with backlash from some media outlets owing to the "over-representation of men". Notably, the Feminist and Green parties jointly launched a petition calling on BTV to include more women, though this reached only 300 signatures and was abandoned. In response, the organisation made the statement that "Our last four entries all had female lead vocalists, and more than three-quarters of all our entries have not featured men. We feel that we have done enough for inclusivity, and have selected these entrants on the basis of their strong entries rather than taking gender into consideration".

Result cancellation
A few hours prior to the contest taking place, An Solen reported that the indie group Blow had previously competed in the eighth edition of D'unelalehvision with the song "You Killed Me On The Moon". This would have made them ineligible to compete in the Øén selection that they were selected through, and hence would not have been selected if this were known.

After they won the contest, BTV declared that they had been disqualified from the contest, and the result had been invalidated as a result. This led to an internal selection process which resulted in the group IMLÉ representing the country at Maia Song Contest 26 with the song "Go deo, go deo". Many maiafans believed their selection was unfair and the vetting process for the national final was deeply flawed for not uncovering the rule-break prior to the show taking place. The group ultimately finished in last-place in the final with 21 points, leading to strong criticism of the broadcaster. Björnskfestivalen did not return for the following edition, with an internal selection taking place for Maia Song Contest 27.